Last Trip to a Museum in 2012 - The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism at De Young Museum in San Francisco

My museum visits in this year (2012) have been greatly augmented by my trips to China, Austria and Italy in May and October, especially the one to Europe, which I have sporadically discussed in my previous blog entries. 

Yesterday, 30 December 2012, I returned to De Young Museum in San Francisco for The William S. Paley Collection: A Taste for Modernism, on the very last day of the exhibit, of which The De Young Museum website informed us was "A selection of major works from the William S. Paley Collection at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.. A pioneering figure in the modern entertainment, communication and news industries, Mr. Paley (1901–1990) was a founder of the Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS), and a dedicated philanthropist and patron of the arts. The Paley Collection, which includes paintings, sculpture and drawings, ranges in date from the late 19th century through the early 1970s. Particularly strong in French Post-Impressionism and Modernism, the collection includes multiple works by Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, as well as significant works by Edgar Degas, Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, Paul Gauguin, Andre Derain, Georges Rouault and artists of the Nabis School such as Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard."

It was an astonishingly rich collection and one highlight succeeded another.  Though I've seen most of them in New York's MOMA, it was wonderful to see them again, in our home museum.  Amongst those wonderful works, I particularly love these below:


The Seed of the Areoi, 1892, Paul Gauguin


Strawberries, c 1905, Pierre-Auguste Renoir


Milk Can and Apples (1879-80), Paul Cezanne


Reclining Nude, 1897, Pierre Bonnard


Two Dancers, 1905, Edgar Degas


Mme Lili Grenier, 1888, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec


Woman with a Veil, c 1907, Henri Matisse


Seated Woman with a Vase of Amaryllis, 1941, Henri Matisse


Odalisque with a Tambourine, Henri Matisse


Boy Leading a Horse, 1905-06, Pablo Picasso


Still Life with Guitar, 1920, Pablo Picasso


Portrait of Ambroise Vollard, 1925, Georges Rouault


Oasis (Mirage), 1944, Georges Rouault

I also stopped by to see another special exhibit: Rudolf Nureyev: A Life in Dance, which featured photos, video clips and costumes of the great dancer, overwhelming in its opulence and extravagance with a tint of vulgarity, redeemed by his unapologetic conviction.

Watermelon Cannonballs and Ballet Danseurs

Food safety in China is an issue again.  This time, before consumption.

It is widely reported that China farmers face 'exploding' watermelon problem, and overdose of certain growth chemical might contributed to the cause. BBC reported thus:

According to the Xinhua news agency, 20 farmers in a village in Jiangsu province planted imported seeds from Japan, with 10 households saying their watermelons began exploding last month.

Farmer Liu Mingsuo told Xinhua that more than two-thirds of his crop had blown up.
He said he had used chemicals to boost their growth on 6 May, and the following day more than 180 melons exploded. Mr Liu was reported to be the only farmer from the 10 households who used chemicals.

Wang Dehong, who has been farming watermelons for 20 years, couldn't understand why his fruit also exploded as he had not used any chemicals.

Agricultural experts investigating the incident were unable to offer an explanation.
China has approved the usage of the growth chemical under certain quotas. So far, tests show the chemical is safe, Xinhua reported.

However, as the public is increasingly concerned about food safety, experts say a quality tracking system should be introduced, detailing every stage along the food chain, to inform the public fully, and ensure food safety.


This story reminded me a funny puppet movie I saw on TV when I just started my elementary school - Watermelon Canons.  The story took place in the end of imperial time in China, when some kids in the secretive rebel group fought off the governmental armies with canons made of exploding watermelons.  The story was definitely one of those "educational" pieces but it was fanciful and laughter inducing to impressionable young boys like me.  The term "watermelon canons" made an very strong impression on my young mind.

At the same time, I watched on TV, again, for the first time of a western ballet, courtesy of my local troupe, Liaoning (Province) Ballet, Swan Lake.  Beautiful music, scenery and costumes and all that, plus amazing acrobatic steps and leaps.  I was deeply impressed.  However, none more so than the supernaturally rounded and prominent rumps of the danseurs.  The very similar size and shape of the rumps and the watermelon canons naturally earned the nickname of "Watermelon Canon" in my family for ballet in general, danseurs or their royal rumps in particular in my family, for the duration of quite a few years before I became rather embarrassed by my cleverness.

Considering it was the time when Chinese people, men or women, all hid their curves, and the polices, militias and old women from residential committees wield scissors to snip fancy hair and cut open tight or flared pants, the strong impression those magnificently curved buttocks made on me was quite understandable.

Mao's Last Dancer?

A friend of mine mentioned a movie he just saw - "Mao's Last Dancer". Since the protagonist shared the same heritage with me, my friend wondered if I would like the movie but when the credits started to roll, he realized that I would not like it, since the movie was too uplifting.

I have to admit that he was right. I am always leery of uplifting art creations.

I was vaguely aware of the story. In order to give it an unbiased account, here I copied the synopsis of the movie from IMDB.com "A drama based on the autobiography by Li Cunxin. At the age of 11, Li was plucked from a poor Chinese village by Madame Mao's cultural delegates and taken to Beijing to study ballet. In 1979, during a cultural exchange to Texas, he fell in love with an American woman. Two years later, he managed to defect and went on to perform as a principal dancer for the Houston Ballet and as a principal artist with the Australian Ballet. "

When I first heard of the story and learned the synopsis, I felt that the title, based on his autobiography, was misleading, sensational and masochistic.

Mao had died for three years when he defected and this insistence of linking himself to Mao is real troublesome. One can never be sure if how proud he is being Mao's dancer. If it is metaphoric speaking, Mao still commands legions of dancers in the world and he is hardly the last. Is he still Mao's dancer? Or simply retired? I wonder if the movie will answer.

To cap my mistrust, my friend told me that the real-life character, Li Cunxin, has become a motivational and inspirational speaker.

On his official website, Li claims:

As a motivational and inspirational speaker, Li’s unique real life story works so effectively with corporations and conferences’ various themes and objectives. It is a story that can touch people deep in their hearts.

Touching people's heart, perhaps. But how his story could motivate me? I honestly do not know.

Motivational and inspirational speaker as a career should never have existed. Human conditions and struggles are unique and chance opportunities often play tricks too. Pretending that everyone can aspire to and achieve same goal, claimed many such speakers, were deliberate cheats and sadomasochistic.

My friend was right. I would stay clear from such emotional manipulations.